Erik Holladay | Special to the Kalamazoo GazetteWMU senior point guard Mike Douglas (5), who gets fouled by Central Michigan's Zach Saylor on a drive to the hoop during Saturday's game, has been dealing with a right shoulder injury for nearly the entire season.

KALAMAZOO — Perhaps it was two straight games with 20 turnovers.

Or maybe Western Michigan University men's basketball coach Steve Hawkins just felt it was time.

Either way, Hawkins decided to “pull the gloves off” this week in regards to getting Broncos senior point guard Mike Douglas back to full-contact practice. Douglas has been dealing with a recurring right shoulder injury throughout the season.

The 6-foot, 175-pounder has watched from the side during the physical parts of WMU's practices, but logs 30-plus minutes in games as a starter. He is averaging 11.1 points. 3.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game.

“ … We can't practice (full-go without Douglas) and I think in the last two games it's showed,” said Hawkins, whose team lost in overtime at Eastern Michigan last Wednesday, 62-59, and defeated Central Michigan Saturday at home, 64-61.

“Mikey hasn't been able to practice because of the shoulder. Brandon (Pokley, broken foot) and David (Brown, season-ending knee injury) are out, so literally with just a scrimmage our 3s (small forwards) are Tim Brennan and Dan Loney. We don't have enough parts to practice.”

That changed a bit Monday, when Douglas was thrown into the mix.

“This is a big part of things. I think this is why the turnovers have come into play,” Hawkins said about the lack of continuity in the guard rotation. “When we do scrimmage, we've been running Austin (Richie) at the point on one team and Demetrius (Ward) at the point on the another. Then we play a game and Mikey's playing 35 minutes and Austin and Demetrius are not playing the point, but they're not used to play with Mikey so the instincts are off.”

The Broncos spent Tuesday making the seven-hour bus trip to Athens, Ohio.

“(Monday), we just had to say (to Douglas), 'Look, you're going to have to practice and we've got to get used to playing with you,'” Hawkins said. “It's not going to be an everyday thing, but when we go live, he's going to have to practice more than what he's practiced and we're at risk (of further injury). So far, so good.

“I do know that we have gotten worse over the last two games, not better, and a lot of it to me is timing, the injuries at the guard spot, the lack of practice time catching up with us, which we've got to get going in the other direction.”